By Mike Frisch and the Fishing the Midwest Team
The 2025 open water fishing season was a good one for this angler. Part of the reason it was good is because I made it a point to spend a vast majority of my free time fishing! Plus, my job as a TV show host keeps me on the water a lot for work. I am blessed to live where I live and do what I do!
This past season might have been the best bass fishing season of my long fishing career. I say “might” because having fished in well over 50 seasons, the memories of some good seasons long past aren’t that fresh anymore. Regardless, I caught lots of bass and had lots of fun!
May, June, and early July found me fishing walleyes a great deal. We traveled to lots of “walleye locations” to film episodes of Fishing the Midwest TV and I had some other business travel as well. Mid-July, however, saw me at home a lot more and my daily routine became a pattern. I would rise early, do whatever work – mostly on the computer – the day required, and try to be done by mid-afternoon. Within a half hour of my home are several dynamite bass lakes. Focusing on three of them mainly, I would often be on the water by 4 pm. That left me four to five solid hours of fishing time.
My fishing pattern for the day was often weather related. We had lots of hot, relatively calm days in the latter part of July and into August. Those days are tailor made for what I call “dropping a jig.” That is, fishing a heavy, skirted bass jig, usually a 1/2-ounce Hack Attack Fluoro Fippin Jig baited with a Rage Craw in and around heavy weed growth. The weeds on my favorite lakes are usually coontail and are on flats in say 6- to 12-feet of water. I make short pitches to any openings or irregularities in the weeds and watch my line as the jig settles in. When a fish hits the line often jumps! Now’s the time to set the hook, and it’s game on. In addition to the hard fight of a struggling bass hooked on a short line, the thing I love about this pattern is that you might go a half an hour, or longer, without a bite and then suddenly you get four fish making the exact same pitch four times in a row. Oh, and the other thing I love is that lots of these are oversized bass weighing 3 ½ pounds or bigger!
The second pattern I employed is one that I relied on when fishing windy days, especially when we got into mid-August and after. At this time, some of the weeds started to die and I could fish moving baits over the tops of the remaining weeds. On windy days especially, this pattern really shines. I relied on two baits for this fishing. First, I threw a ½-ounce Tungsten Thunder Cricket bladed jig tipped with a Blade Minnow trailer. My other bait was a Hybrid Hunter, a crankbait with a unique bill that gives it a hard thumping, hunting action that some days the bass can’t resist. I had days where I caught more than a dozen bass holding my boat in one spot and making the same cast over and over again. If the fish didn’t want the Cricket I would switch to the Hunter. Most often one of the two produced! Once again, lots of the fish I caught were good sized bass.
The past summer’s fishing season was a good one and I am already anxious for 2026. It might not lead to as good of fishing as 2025, but you never know. What I do know is I’m as excited about fishing as I ever was and can’t wait to back out there!
As always, enjoy your time on the water and remember to include a youngster in your next outdoors adventure!
Mike Frisch hosts the popular Fishing the Midwest TV series. Visit www.fishingthemidwest.com to see more fishing tips and view recent TV episodes as well!
PHOTO – Mike Frisch with a bass he caught last summer.
